China Metal Recycling, the country’s biggest and only listed metals recycler, plans to be a major player in consolidation of a fragmented and underdeveloped scrap sector. Rising labour costs, tighter regulation, and shifting customer requirements are an opportunity for bigger and more efficient companies to expand market share, CMR’s chairman and ceo Jacky Chun said. "If you compare the metal recycling business in China with the business in developed countries, we’re 20-30 years behind,” Chun said. “There are a lot of small players with insufficient capital and not much in the way of technology or equipment.” CMR claims to be the biggest scrap supplier and aims to process and sell around 1.4-1.5 million tonnes of steel and nonferrous material this year, nearly double last year’s volume thanks to acquisitions. By the end of 2010 it will have 4.1 million tpy of processing capacity, after it concludes the purchase of a state-owned recycler...